Providence, RI. – At the tender age of 22 months, without ever having spread their wings or basked in the sunlight, 15 chickens were rescued by Rhode Island Vegan Awareness from lives of suffering and intensive confinement.Just a drop in the bucket of the approximately 40,000 hens still languishing in battery cages at Little Rhody Egg Farm in Foster, Rhode Island.These lucky fifteen hens will spend the remainder of their natural lives at the United Poultry Concerns animal sanctuary in Machipongo, West Virginia.

On March 25, hundreds of Little Rhody hens arrived in the winter cold on an open truck at Antonelli Poultry, a live market on Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island.Volunteers for Rhode Island Vegan Awareness purchased their freedom in an effort to raise public awareness about the plight of hens abused in agribusiness.RIVA hopes that rest and tender loving care will heal these birds of their physical and psychological trauma.All of the birds have severe feather loss and some are recovering from dehydration and broken bones.

RIVA’s Co-Founder and President, Elana Kirshenbaum, says, “The last thing RIVA wishes to do is support a business that is predicated on the unnecessary suffering and killing of any species.The hens are innocent victims of a widespread abusive system that legally regards them as property.All hens deserve to be spared the unacceptable deprivation and slaughter that is their tragic fate.”

RIVA volunteer, Christa Albrecht-Vegas, adds,“It’s not just happening in large agricultural states like California and New Jersey.In turning our backs on the unpleasant truths occurring in our own backyard, Rhode Islanders are complicit in a system of abuse and exploitation.”

RIVA urges consumers to rethink their food choices and adopt a vegan diet.Free guides and information, as well as photos, are available through our website at http://www.veganawareness.org/.